By Stephen Vance, Editor
Council's approval of a pilot project that will allow licenced sidewalk patios in the downtown core could be a giant step forward for all businesses in the municipality.
One of the comments often heard about Meaford is that it is a 'drive-through town', with little to catch the attention of a passing motorist, not enough to prompt...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
For the past eight years, the beginning of June has marked the opening of the Meaford Farmers' Market at the Rotary Harbour pavilion, and today market organizers are set to begin their ninth season.
As far as community initiatives go, Meaford's farmers' market is a genuine success story. It's no simple task to get a farmers' market...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
It has been painful to watch over the past few years when council reviews requests for community grants, and decides who and what to fund, and for how much.
What might seem a simple task is turned into a long, drawn-out, confusing affair caused primarily because this council, and the previous council, just can't follow the policy...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
With a few simple words at council's May 11 meeting, Meaford's Deputy Mayor, Harley Greenfield, seems to have created concern amongst councillors. Enough concern that Mayor Barb Clumpus called a closed meeting this week to discuss and seek legal advice.
What did the Deputy Mayor say to bring about a closed session meeting for council and...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
I suspect that if there's a word we will all likely tire of in the coming years, it's 'infrastructure'. Whenever I write about the coming infrastructure nightmare, I typically receive two types of responses from readers – some are concerned, and some think I'm nuts.
I might be nuts, but the looming infrastructure crisis is very real,...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
This weekend mothers everywhere will be sent flowers, given cards and gifts, pampered with breakfast in bed, and a host of other traditions that have been developed for the annual expression of appreciation for mothers.
Motherhood is a tough job. If there was a job description posted for the position of motherhood, I would be surprised that...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
Unlike my friend at Meaford's other paper, I have rarely been bothered about, and have never written about the meals provided for council and municipal staff during council meetings, primarily because embarking on such a topic typically devolves into “council is wasting our money” even though the cost is literally peanuts, and really should not be...
By Stephen Vance, Editor
Some members of Meaford's council seemed genuinely surprised that more than a quarter of Meaford children under the age of six live in poverty, and some 12.5 percent of all youth under the age of 18 live in low-income households.
The fact that it was a surprise to members of our council was a surprise to me....
By Stephen Vance, Editor
After a long, cold, snowy winter, the first hints of Spring have been welcome indeed. The snow that accumulated over the past few months is slowly shrinking away, revealing lawns and sidewalks – and trash. A messy species we are.
For some reason we humans are prone to discarding inconvenient items in convenient (for us) places –...
By Stephen Vance, Staff
It has been said that the good guys don't get the ink in newspapers that the bad guys get, and that likely isn't far from true, so here's some good ink about a good guy that our municipality lost this week – municipal employee Bob Harding.
Bob had worked for the municipality for more than 25 years,...
